Folders taking forever to open on my PC

[quasi2]

I have a Dell Dimension XPS series desktop computer from circa year 2000. It has 20 GB of space, 384 MB of RAM and 800 mHz speed. I have about 10 GB of space left.

I have had problems with the folders (for example in "My documents&quot taking a long time to open (up to 30 seconds to open). When I first start the computer, all the folders open pretty fast. As time goes on (a few hours), it takes longer and longer for each folder to open. My folders contain things like photoshop files (not too large..about 4 MB each), Flash files etc. None of the folders have more than 15-20 items in it. I do have a lot of folder and subfolders within "My Documents". Maybe 30 folders and about 10 folders in each of teh 30 folders.

I did go into "msconfig" and removed a lot of unnecessary stuff from the start up.

What do you experts think is eating up my processor speed? This slow down even happens when all applications are closed (not on start up, but after a few hours of use).

So, to sum up, I've got a decent amount of RAM (384MB), 800mhz of speed, a cleaned up start up via msconfig, 10GB of a total of 20 GB of total space...

 

[BuckeyeComputers]

what OS are you running?
and you seem to be referring to My Documents alot what other folders...all?

 

[bcastner]

Try defragging the disk.

 

[nlm9802]

This sounds like a corrupt(ing) profile..

try logging in as the admin account, and rename your c:/documents and settings/yourname folder to yourname1

then log in as yourself. It will create a new profile and your folders should run as normal, then just copy/paste what you need out of your old profile (yourname1)

it works about 95% of the time, and is really easy.
defrag wouldn't hurt too

Nick
Computer Support, no not just hardware.. I support everything

 

[ceh4702]

Since the longer you have the computer running, it takes longer to open a folder, this is a sign that some program or DLL may have a memory leak. The only way to evaluate this is to keep track of everything that runs when you press ctrl-alt-del and then close one thing at a time till you figure out what program or process is causing the memory leak.

Another thing that can cause this type of problem is a CPU overheating. Some motherboards automatically slow down the processor when it gets hot. This is something that is hard to fix on a laptop, because it is hard to take one apart properly without breaking it.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[quasi2]

Thanks for your responses! Many of your theories are new to me!

I am running Windows 98. It seems that all the folders are slowing...not just the "My Documents" folders.

cej4702, could you explain the ctrl/alt/delete method again?

nlam, could you explain your profile solution a little more? Do I log in in the 'run' window?

I defragged last night and it seems to run better. I have defragged at least once a year. I've heard it's not good to do it too much? How often should one defrag.

 

[drdebit]

thread751-551430 refers to other threads containing cleanup information for win98--also has a suggestion concerning reformatting.

 

[drdebit]

There was a thread somewhere not too long ago that suggested you could overdo defrag -- doing it too frequently increasing harddrive wear for no or minimal benefit.

 

[nlm9802]

hm, have you tried posting in the 98 forum? This doesn't seem to be a general hardware issue. I'm no expert with 95/98, my advice above was assuming 2k/xp. good luck finding/fixing the problem

Nick
Computer Support, no not just hardware.. I support everything

 

[drdebit]

The thread i posted above links to a faq and other threads containing comments by a number of very knowledgeable 95/98 folks.

 

[ceh4702]

Memory leaks:

When you press ctrl-alt-del you should see a message telling you if you press it again, the computer will reboot. It should also show you all the programs you are running along with some processes that are usually DLL's or sub-programs that the main programs run. Sometimes one program has a memory problem and keeps using all of your memory. When this happens Windows starts writing pages of memory to the hard drive. Eventually all space allotted to your swap space will be used up and windows slows down, crashes or shows you the blue screen with some message. i.e. Blue Screen of Death.

Usually it is only one program that does this. When you press ctrl-alt-del, you also have the option of ending or closing one program. If you make a list of the programs that are running, you can close one program and then try running windows for a while. If the problem goes away by closing one program or DLL, then you can pinpoint the problem to one specific program.

I had a home netwroking kit from 3Com and it had a program called Home Click or something like that and it had one dll that would eventually crash your system. It took me a long time to figure this out. It had one DLL that monitored the printers and eventually it just used up all of your resources. Then everything just quits, you get the blue screen of death or possibly you get an out of memory warning.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[tedsmith]

I find around 50 sub folders in a folder does slow W98 Windows Explorer down.
Better to have more levels of folders.
If you reboot the computer, does it resume at the fast speed? If so it is not heating.
Sounds like a resources leak. Monitor the Available physical memory in the Accessories, System Tools.
I set it up to read every 5 minutes and it produces a graph.
If this graph gets smaller over time you have a memory leak.
Internet Explorer has a leak if you open lots of separate screens and close them out of sequence.

 

[Breakerfall]

You can also try to clean the Registry a little bit,
Get RegCleaner (free) and try to clean unnecesary entries
in your reg, it will not hurt either.

RegCleaner also will show you all the programs that run every time your computer starts. Some programs may not show up when you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del. RegClean shows programs that start up from the "Start>Programs>Startup" and from the Registry Itself.

good luck



Breakerfall
®º°¨¨°º can you ping me now...GOOD! º°¨¨°º®

 

[MrForest]

I am having exactly the same problem as you quasi2. And even more interesting; I'm using a Dell Dimension 4100 running Win98 SE, having about 10GB free HD space, ie almoust the same hardware...

I woul'd like to point out that only windows explorer get's slow, other programs runs as before (anyway on my computer). Opening a folder with a "browse file" dialog of an other application is fast... Seems to me this is a problem of windows explorer.